“Survey? What survey?”
Developing a robust communication strategy that will encourage participation and communicate the results in a way that your employees will appreciate.
Things to check off the list as you craft your communication strategy are:
- Prepare employees for the survey. Let employees know ahead of time:
- why you are conducting a survey
- when it’s happening
- what you will do with the responses
- and critically, how you are protecting their privacy and individual confidentiality
- Encourage participation. An employees’ time is valuable. Make sure you let employees know that you need and value their feedback and participation.
- Send Reminders. Send one or more reminders during the survey period – as even the best-intentioned employee will forget to respond when the survey invitation has disappeared “off the bottom of the screen.”
- Thank employees for their participation and feedback. Filling out a survey takes work and time, and so thank all employees for participating. Tip: Thanking everyone regardless of their participation also avoids any potential concerns over confidentiality in the way of “How do they know that I participated?”.
- Close the loop. Tell employees what the survey revealed and what your plans are for responding to the results. If there are ideas or suggestions that can’t be actioned, be sure to tell employees why. After all they went to “all the effort” – they’ll want to see you do the same.
- Keep the channels open. As you implement action plans in response to the survey results be sure to communicate this to employees. Your workforce will be far more willing to participate in future surveys if they feel their feedback is being heard and acted upon.
Next tip: “Should I make the survey questions ‘required’?”
